Conservative spotlight: M. Stanton Evans

Human Events, Nov 19, 2001 by D'Agostino, Joseph A

To an alumnus of the National Journalism Center (NJC) such as this writer, director M. Stanton Evans and his NJC seem to have been around forever, and surely will always exist just as they are. In fact, the NJC was founded in 1977 and has undergone a bit of a change recently, though the 67-year-old Evans witnessed the birth of the modern conservative movement and, it is said, has changed little since.

On February 1, sponsorship of the NJC switched from Evans' Education and Research Institute to Young America's Foundation (YAF), both of which are 501(c)(3) nonprofit educational foundations. The NJC is now a program of YAF.

"There are two things that this merger makes possible for us," said Evans, a longtime journalist-he has contributed to HUMAN EVENTs for almost 50 years-- and sometime conservative activist. "One is they obviously have resources to raise money that exceeds what we have. Two, they have a constituency of students that they can reach. We will be able to bring in more students.... We've always operated very close to the line of what we can afford." Bringing in more students is not just a question of increasing the pool of money available for the students' expenses-each NJC intern is given a small stipend and, if he requests it, inexpensive housing. "We would need more space, more editors, more supervisory personnel," Evans said.

The annual crop of interns, currently at 50 to 60, could easily double, he said. "Also, there is my age," said Evans, throwing a little doubt on his timelessness. "I must consider the future."

But when it comes to the important thing, the program experienced by NJC interns, what has changed? "Almost nothing," said Evans. "We place a lot of emphasis not on who said what yesterday but digging into an issue." The NJC program insists that journalists cannot content themselves with reporting the statements of politicians or experts, or on "horserace" reporting about who or what is winning at the moment, but must familiarize themselves with the issues they cover and provide their readers and listeners with real information.

"It is not just that there is a pervasive liberal bias in the media," said Evans. "Journalists do superficial reporting. We're not teaching people to be conservative. We're teaching them to be journalists."

The 12-week program of a typical NJC intern, who is usually a college student or recent graduate, is divided into two six-- week segments: one spent learning journalistic techniques and Evans' belief that journalists should actually know what they are writing about while working on a magazine-length article, and the other as an intern at a news outlet such as CNN, Evans & Novak, Investor's Business Daily, HUMAN EVENTS, or several local papers.

NJC's biggest claim to fame is the success of its alumni. The center runs a job placement service and keeps track of its 1,400 graduates as best it can. A 26-page alumni directory lists 800 of them and their positions. NJC alumni include John Merline, Ann Coulter, Michael Fumento, Malcolm Gladwell, Maggie Gallagher, John Fund and five other members of the Wall Street Journal editorial staff.

Evans began his journalistic career at Yale College, where he was on the Yale Daily News and a publication called the Independent. "I entered in '51," Evans said. "William F. Buckley had just written God & Man at Yale about the previous four years. It was a very secular place, Keynesian orthodoxy in the econ department. We wrote critiques of the courses we were taking. We didn't write about national issues. We didn't think we were competent to do that." Evans co-founded the Party of the Right while in college, and the conservative debating society has nurtured Ivy League conservatives ever since.

Evans for years served as editor of the Indianapolis News and has authored a number of books, the latest of which is The Theme is Freedom (Regnery, 1996), documenting the religious roots of America and her freedoms., He is now hard at work on a book about Joe McCarthy. "I have 75,000 to 100,000 pages of FBI files," he said.

The NJC occupies a building on Capitol Hill within striking distance of the U.S. Capitol and major government offices. Evans wants his students to go to original sources and be part of Washington's information industry, not its opinion industry. He derides "SCS, syndicated columnist syndrome," pointing to Bob Novak as an exception, a columnist who always includes valuable reporting in his articles.

Summarizing the role of NJC, he said with confidence, "I don't think anyone else does what we do."

The NJC may be reached at 800 Maryland Ave. NE., Washington, D.C. 20002 (202-544-1333; fax: 202-546-3489; e-mail: editor@nationaljournalismcenter.org; website: www.nationaljournalismcenter.org).